Below him on the slope, he spied one of his robots at work, cutting loose a sample for analysis. The task was essentially finished, however. Soon he could seek his van and take the crew back to camp. He transmitted, for the ship to receive and relay:
“It’s established now beyond doubt. The impactor was ferrous, probably itself a remnant of the original body, which went out on an orbit close to this andeventually collided. Between its composition and the material forced up from the interior, the central peak is a lode of industrial metals, both light and heavy, even more easily recoverable than they are at other locations.”
“That makes two treasures, then!” rang Kaino’s response. He meant the cometary glacier which he and Ilitu had been exploring. Not only had they found immense quantities of water ice and organic compounds, they had identified ample cyanide and ammonia intermingled, frozen or chemically bound. Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen: the fundamentals of life. “Never before, anything like! I could well-nigh believe in a god who meant it for us.”
“That is not a necessary hypothesis,” Ilitu said in his gentle, precise fashion, “Nor has coincidence been involved. Given Edmond Beynac’s idea—a planetoid massive enough to form a core, smashed, then most of the pieces perturbed into Kuiper-Belt paths—the rest seems probable, perhaps inevitable. There were bound to be further encounters during gigayears, with rich fragments and with comets. This, the largest body, would attract more than its share. Weak irradiation and ultra-low ambient temperatures preserve volatiles as they cannot be preserved in the inner System.”
“Thus speaks the savant,” chuckled Etana affectionately from the ship.
“When will you be done where you are?” Brandir asked the men. Discoveries and what they would require were wholly unpredictable; and he had been too engaged with his to follow theirs in any detail.
“We prepare to depart,” Kaino answered. “Let our successors trace out everything that’s here. After a short rest and resupplyihg, Ilitu wants to investigate the Great Scarp and the Olla Podrida. That’s good in my mind, if we can go by way of Iron Heath.” Those were features noted before anyone had landed, but not yet betrodden.
“Well, we’ll talk of it in camp,” Brandir said. “We near our limits of accomplishment in the while that we have left to us.”
“I’ll trust Ilitu to persuade you,” Kaino laughed. Brandir heard the click of signoff.
Etana’s voice stormed at him: “How’s this? They wander straightway to a new land, and’ I remain caged?”
Doctrine. A qualified pilot must always be on standby. Tiny though the chance was of a meteoroid strike in these parts, and the solar flare hazard nonexistent, Brandir chose to abide by the rule. “It would be a long walk home,” he had said. Besides, when they were just three persons and a few robots on the ground, it was well to have a watcher aloft, ready to mount a rescue.
“Let Kaino take his turn here,” she said. “He promised me. You all did.”
“Khr-r, he has done rockjack work in the asteroids, you know,” Brandir pointed out.
“And I have not? Admitted. But this is no asteroid. Not in truth. It’s more akin to Luna. And I have ranged the outback at home as much as ever be or you.”
“Y-yes—”
She laid rape aside. “It’s merely fair,” she argued. “You have spirit, Brandir. Would you care to sit idled week upon week, in the ghost-companionship of recorded screenings, while your mates roved free?”
“Later, yes, certainly you shall.”
“Now! The hour is ripe, two surveys completed, the next to be readied for.” Etana’s tone sweetened. “It could be you I fare with, could it not? Ilitu has scant need of more than the robots to help him do his science. You and I are aimed toward whatever may prove useful to the future.”
“I must think on that.”
“Must you? Is it not star-clear? And … Brandir, I’ve grievously mi si iked our being at odds. You kept yourself so masked. We should find our way to something better.”In the end he yielded. Knowing this, he spoke more stiffly than might have been necessary when he called the other pair.